Melbourne's Top 5 provedores

The best places to splurge your hard-earned on some delectable delicacies.

By TESSIE VANDERWERT AND GARY MUNRO

September 18, 2010 — 12.00am

1. Luxe

SIMPLY walking through the doors of Simon Johnson (right) can be enough to burn a hole in your pocket, but if money is no issue, or you want to splurge on comestibles totally indulgent and luxurious, this is the place. Shop for La Polignac dried morelles $44.75/30g; tin of Pebeyre whole truffles $525.25/100g and Ortiz Family Reserve anchovies $29.95/75g, or if you are into the whole provenance-of-your-food trend, you won’t mind forking out $19.95 for a packet of pasta by Pastificio dei Campi. What you’re paying for is knowing the day the wheat was sown, the field it was grown in and day of harvest. Elsewhere, pick up beautiful organic honey, fruit preserves, organic Duchy sweets, cheeses, infused olive oils, curry pastes by Christine Manfield and house-made pasta sauces and stocks.

LOOKING for a Middle Eastern ingredient? It’s hard to imagine you couldn’t find it at Oasis Bakery. While the cafe portion of the recently renovated institution is packed at weekends, many also come to check out the made-on-site grocery product range, which includes breads, chilli pastes, a dizzying number of spice mixes and dips. Utensils such as Lebanese coffee pots and tagines line the shelves, and there are plenty of imported items to satisfy foodies, from manuka honey to canned seafood, jars of roasted peppers to Spanish tortas. They’re now doing weekly cooking classes, too.

FOR 35 years Casa Iberica has been catering to the needs of Melbourne’s Spanish/Portuguese (and wider Hispanic) community. If you are pining to make paella, this earthy institution should be your first stop. You’ll find pans (and other cooking vessels) of all sizes, and most of the ingredients you will need, including rice, saffron, paprika and seasoning mixes. There’s a selection of smallgoods — chorizo, morcilla (blood pudding) and the like — along with the revered jamon, pre-packed or sliced to order, a plethora of cheeses and boxes of bacalao (dried salted cod) ready for reconstitution. And that’s not to mention the frozen items, the jars and tins of olives, peppers and seafood crammed on to the shelves, or the empanadas and custard tarts available to take away.

NEW on the scene is the Johnston Street Foodstore and cafe, run by Michael and Mary Conrad, former owners of Carlton restaurant Toofey’s. Here the focus is on Australian-made products, from Suzanne Quintner’s North African harissa, dressings and marinades to Piknik jams and spiced lemon pickle, pasta sauces by Raw Materials and Yarra Valley preserves. From the counter, take home freshly made packs of lasagne, Shepherd’s pie and duck confit (it includes extra duck fat for your potatoes) along with smallgoods, cheeses, Dench bread, dips, fresh gnocchi and pasta. The coffee is good too.

PERHAPS it’s the dark, timber floors and furniture, the deli stocked with European cheeses and antipasti, or the opera playing in the background, but Eurodore feels like the place where it’s appropriate to greet your guests in the European way with thrice-kissed cheeks. Lining the walls, quality house-made preserves (rhubarb and rosewater jam) and pasta sauces, dried Italian pasta, honey, salts and olive oils are for sale. Otherwise, take a delightful breakfast or lunch in the adjoining cafe.Eurodore: 271 Bay Street, Port Melbourne, daily 8am-5pm, 96463499, eurodore.com.au